“He’s Still Workin On Me”

June 8, 2011

“And I sought for a man among them, that should make up the hedge, and stand in the gap before me for the land, that I should not destroy it: but I found none.” Ezekiel 22:30“Therefore he said that he would destroy them, had not Moses his chosen stood before him in the breach, to turn away his wrath, lest he should destroy them.” Psalms 106:23

Back in the fall a high school friend of mine contacted me. She needed encouragement, help, she needed not only a friend, but a sister in Christ who would be willing to stand in the gap. I really prayed and asked God for his guidance to know how I could help her. She had some very specific needs and I agreed to pray for her of course. However, I just felt like it wasn’t enough. Yet there was nothing else that I could think of that I could do. So I started emailing her scriptures and song lyrics to encourage her, but that still didn’t seem like enough. I kept asking God what else I could do. I felt urged of God to make a committment to prayer, not just during the day or during a devotional time, a true time committment. I prayed and committed myself to God and then to my friend that I would pray for her for 10 days, 10 minutes, at 10 pm (I set my alarm clock on my phone). Sometimes it was in the middle of doing something I needed to do, sometimes I was already in the bed, sometimes I was doing something I wanted to do, but each night I stopped whatever I was doing for 10 minutes and gave that time to God to stand in the gap for my friend. When I told her about my committment it gave her a huge sense of peace to know that at specific time that God was not only going to show up, but that I was willing to give up my time so that she would have that peace. I prayed for her family, I prayed for her walk with God, I prayed for her marriage, I prayed for the needs she had. During those 10 days, together we saw God work over and over in situations that just seemed to be helpless. The thing about it though was not only did God help my friend, but He also drew me so very close to Him. It was so intense! I grew in my walk of faith with the Lord like never before and it was because I made a committment to pray for someone else. How could this be?? There were needs in my own family, my husband needed a job, things about my own job were changing and beginning to be very stressful, we were managing a home with 6 kids, why was I praying for someone else instead of my own needs? God started challenging me, changing me, blessing me in ways like never before.

The first song I ever learned to sing was called, “He’s Still Working On Me”. I stood on a platform at age 3 with my family singing these words:

He’s still working on me to make me what I ought to be. It took Him just a week to make the moon and stars,The sun and the earth and Jupiter and Mars. How loving and patient He must be, He’s still working on me.

There really ought to be a sign upon the heart, Don’t judge me yet, there’s an unfinished part.But I’ll be perfect just according to His plan fashioned by the Master’s loving hands.

In the mirror of His Word reflections that I see make me wonder why He never gave up on me.He loves me as I am and helps me when I pray remember He’s the Potter, I’m the clay. Going through these 10 days taught me just that. He is still working on me. He’s working on all of us if we are willing to make a committment to Him. A committment to serve Him, to love others, to work for Him.

Ask God to put someone on your heart, it doesn’t matter who they are. It could be someone at work, in your Sunday School class, it could be someone in your family, it could be a friend that needs God. Ask God to let you know who your person is, let that person know what you are doing (they may have something specific that you can pray for that you don’t know about). Then make a committment to pray for that person for 10 days, for 10 minutes, at 10 o’clock (or at a specific time everyday). Set aside that time to be your time for prayer. Another thing that was great about it was the example I set before my family. They knew that at 10 pm no matter what I was doing I was going to go to my room to kneel down and pray for someone who needed prayer. My children really questioned me about it and I was able to share the importance of not only prayer, but praying for someone else with them. One of the greatest honors in my life has been being asked by someone else to pray for them. To know that someone else thinks enough of my relationship with God that they would ask me to pray for them, absolutely makes me stand humbled by God.

Do It!! Watch and see what a difference it makes in the person you are praying for. Watch and see the difference it will make in you!! Be willing to step out and do something different, get out of your comfort zone, it’s amazing what God will do if we just step back and let Him do it.